US eases ban on security investments that finance Chinese military companies

The Biden administration has reversed Trump-era restrictions and reauthorized most US investments in companies owned or controlled by the Chinese military, according to a Treasury Department notice.

In mid-November, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting American investments in Chinese companies linked to the country’s military, forcing US stock exchanges to delist companies.

Reversing the previous president’s action, Biden has moved to authorize most investments in companies “whose name closely matches, but does not exactly match, the name of a Communist Chinese military company” until May 27, according to the Treasury notice. However, the new general license does not allow transactions with subsidiaries of Chinese military companies that are currently banned by the US.

The move had been anticipated, as Biden administration officials have been critical of Trump’s measures, which forced the US stock exchange to remove Chinese companies from its listings, including the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Sinochem and ChemChina.

While the Biden administration has reversed the restriction on US investments, the State Department appears set to continue US government criticism of Beijing on a number of issues, particularly Taiwan, releasing remarks shortly after the inauguration condemning China’s actions in the region.

https://www.rt.com/usa/513805-us-amends-restrictions-investments-chinese-military/

DuPage County Illinois Signed “Anti-Transparency Contract” with Dominion Voting Systems – Company Pushed County to Resist Release of Information

What was this about?

Dominion Voting Systems signed an anti-transparency contract with DuPage County Illinois. Dominon encouraged DuPage County to resist release of information on their voting systems.

Illinois Leaks reported:

When people are denied public records they routinely reach out to us for assistance and more often than not, we are able to request the same records and we get them. When this happens it is an indicator of a problem because if we are able to get those records, so too should others.

The DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek and her Chief Deputy Scott Mackay signed a contract with Dominion Voting Systems Inc. on January 24, 2020. After a copy of that contract was requested by an individual and denied, we were asked to assist in getting the same records. Our Freedom of Information Act request was granted and we find the Dominion Voting Systems encouragements to avoid transparency very troubling.

From the Contract:

8. Customer shall take any and all action necessary or appropriate to assert all applicable or potentially applicable exemptions from disclosure under the FOIA Statute and take all other legally permissible steps to resist disclosure of the Information including, without limitation, commencement or defense of any legal actions related to such disclosure. In the event Customer receives a request for Information under the FOIA Statute, Customer shall inform Dominion of such request within ten (10) days of Customer’s knowledge or such shorter period as necessary under the FOIA Statute to avoid prejudice to Dominion’s ability to oppose disclosure, Dominion shall use its best efforts to assist and support Customer’s exercise of any statutory exemption in denying a records request under the Freedom of Information Act (5 ILCS 140/1 et seq.). In the event that Customer becomes subject to fines, costs or fees pursuant to Section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act (5 ICLS 140/11) relying upon Dominion’s claim that the information requested is exempt, Dominion shall indemnify Customer for those fines, fees and costs, notwithstanding any other provisions In this agreement. In the event Customer is required by court order to disclose any of the Information, Customer shall give written notice to Dominion at the earlier as soon as reasonably practical after tile imposition of such an order.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/dupage-county-illinois-signed-anti-transparency-contract-dominion-voting-systems-company-pushed-county-resist-release-information/

https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2021/01/dupage-county-clerk-signed-anti-transparency-contract-with-dominion-voting-systems-dominion-encouraged-county-to-resist-disclosure-of-information/

Rewriting history? Newsweek edits 2015 story to align with disputed claim that GOP Sen. Tom Cotton lied about his military record

Newsweek has been accused of tinkering with its past reporting in order to lend weight to controversial accusations that Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) misrepresented his military service while running for Congress.

The outlet ran a piece last week in which it highlighted claims that Cotton had wrongfully described himself as a former US Army Ranger during his first election campaign in 2012. Salon was the first to push the allegation, reporting that Cotton had wrongfully attributed himself to be a part of the elite unit during his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather, the Arkansas senator had attended a two-month training course at the Ranger school, earning him the right to wear the Ranger insignia while not actually serving in a Ranger regiment. And thus him describing himself as an Army Ranger is false.

The scoop was quickly broadcast by Cotton’s political rivals. Colorado Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, a veteran of the Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment, posted a photograph of himself wearing a Ranger beret, apparently to demonstrate what a ‘real’ Ranger looks like.

"Hey@SenTomCotton, unless you wore one of these berets you shouldn't be calling yourself a Ranger. Truth matters," Crow wrote.

Cotton’s communications director clarified that the senator “graduated from Ranger School, earned the Ranger Tab, and served a combat tour with the 101st Airborne, not the 75th Ranger Regiment.”

Cotton himself responded to the accusations, saying on Fox News’ Special Report on Monday that he is being targeted for his politics and that the issue of him calling himself an Army Ranger was only brought up now. He added that people from senior military officials to “most of my buddies in the Army,” “most of the liberal media” referred to Ranger school graduates as Army Rangers, “until a conservative veteran was using the term that way."

But Newsweek’s decision to join in on the pile-on revealed a glaring inconsistency in its own reporting: the outlet also referred to the Ranger school graduates as Army Rangers.

https://www.rt.com/usa/513775-cotton-newsweek-ranger-rewriting-history/

131 Arrested on ‘Calmer’ Night of Dutch Coronavirus Curfew

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Dutch police said Wednesday that the fourth night of the Netherlands’ coronavirus curfew passed more peacefully than the previous three nights marred by rioting. Even so, officers arrested 131 people, mainly for public order offenses and incitement.

“It was calmer around the curfew on Tuesday night than the days before,” police said in a statement.

Underscoring the role of young people, who have been forced to stay home from school for weeks due to the country’s tough lockdown, police said that most suspects arrested for inciting riots through social media were under age 18.

The rioting has rocked the Netherlands, which has a caretaker government after Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s ruling coalition resigned earlier this month over a scandal involving child welfare benefit fraud investigations. The pandemic is expected to be a key campaign issue before a general election scheduled for March 17.

Prosecutions of rioters began Wednesday, with a judge in The Hague sentencing a 19-year-old man to two months in prison for throwing a rock at a police van on Monday night.

Neighboring Belgium expressed fears Wednesday that the unrest could spread, with calls for protests against the country’s tough lockdown and its 9 p.m. curfew mounting on social media. The Dutch curfew, which began Saturday, also begins at 9 p.m.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/27/131-arrested-on-calmer-night-during-dutch-coronavirus-curfew15500067/

Conservative MP Calls for GPS Tracking of Quarantined Britons

Chairman of the Commons Health Committee Jeremy Hunt has said the government should consider using GPS to track Britons ordered to self-isolate by the NHS’s Test and Trace system.

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, claimed that “lockdown isn’t working fast enough” at slowing the virus because too many people with symptoms are not quarantining themselves.

“Closing borders and quarantine hotels is a sensible step…but we won’t address the heart of the problem unless we deal with the domestic transmission. We need to raise compliance with isolation to the 95%+ rates achieved in Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore,” Mr Hunt wrote on social media on Monday.

He claimed authorities must conduct “daily contact with those asked to self-isolate — using GPS tracking to monitor compliance if necessary, as happens in Taiwan and Poland.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, the influential Conservative MP said while he backed tightening controls on those foreign travellers entering the country from high-corona-risk nations, he claimed the “elephant in the room is not the 10,000 or so people arriving in the UK every day” but the “30,000 people in the UK already who are asked to quarantine by test and trace and are not doing so”.

Mr Hunt told the broadcaster: “We may also need to enforce more compliance, but I think you can only do that if you’re making people a reasonable offer to support them financially for any losses they may have from having to stay at home.”

UK Police Chief: ‘Now Is Really Not the Time’ for Freedom of Speech, Right to Assembly https://t.co/kRkaZbAf3P

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 15, 2021

Last week, Downing Street denied that it was planning on handing out £500 to everyone in England who tests positive for coronavirus to ensure they self-isolate. The proposal was part of a leaked policy document from the health department and would cost the British taxpayer £2 billion a month.

The Commons Health Committee chairman continued: “If the vaccine distribution is to be effective, and if we’re to succeed in doing it before we get new variants that could potentially threaten it, then we need to look at compliance with test and trace very urgently.”

Mr Hunt was referencing the NHS’s Test and Trace system where those who test positive for the Chinese virus are ordered to self-isolate for ten days from when they first exhibited symptoms. They must also give contact details of those they have recently interacted with and the places they have visited.

“If NHS Test and Trace contact tracers are unable to contact you for 24 hours, they may pass your case to your local authority to follow up by phone or in person,” the government says.

While there have been a few protests against the draconian lockdown measures in the UK, recent polling has revealed Britons to have an appetite for more police state interventions in their private lives.

Last week it was revealed that nearly half, 45 per cent, of Britons polled back the government surveilling people’s mobile phone data in the enforcement of lockdown measures, with 42 per cent opposed. The week before, another poll found that 46 per cent of people believe that police have not been strict enough, and should crack down harder on those who allegedly break COVID laws.

Nearly half of Britons are in favour of government surveillance on people’s phones in order to enforce lockdown measures during a pandemic https://t.co/4JoCWxEHIh

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 20, 2021

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/27/conservative-mp-calls-for-gps-tracking-of-quarantined-britons/

Sen. Tom Carper Introduces Washington DC Admission Act to Make Nation’s Capital its 51st State

Senator Tom Carper on Wednesday introduced the Washington DC Admission Act. The legislation will make the nation’s capital its 51st State.

This will ensure two more radical far left senators and at least one US House representative for Democrats.

Washington DC reportedly voted 92% for Joe Biden in 2020. The city is as liberal as the mainstream media.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/go-sen-tom-carper-introduces-washington-dc-admission-act-make-nations-capital-51st-state/

‘Trussst Usss! We’re Not Evil’ Claims Davos WEF Great Reset Promo Video

The World Economic Forum wants you to know that there is nothing sinister about its globalist masterplan — aka The Great Reset — for a New World Order. It says so in a promo video, released to coincide with its annual Davos summit (which is taking place online all this week).

In the video, the WEF admits that some people think that the Great Reset sounds like ‘some nefarious plan for world domination.’

But nothing could be further from the truth, the video goes on to insist. The Great Reset is simply “an opportunity to build a better world.”

If people think otherwise, it claims, it’s all the fault of the ‘broken system’ and the ‘pandemic.’

It’s not surprising that people who’ve been disenfranchised by a broken system and pushed even further by the pandemic will suspect global leaders of conspiracy.

So says the WEF. But could there be a more plausible explanation for people’s concern about the Great Reset: that they’ve started to do their homework and don’t like what they’ve discovered.

For many years, the annual Davos cavalcade of private jets and limousines was something of a joke: ‘billionaires coming to tell millionaires how ordinary people should live.’

But since the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, people have been paying much closer to attention to what this annual plutocrats’ shindig in Davos actually entails: a totalitarian world takeover in which a tiny elite will control every aspect of the lives of ordinary people, reducing them to the status of Medieval serfs.

In the past, the WEF has not been secretive about its aims. In 2016, it released a video in which it boasted about a future where no one owned any property.

Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.

Last year, the WEF’s founder Klaus Schwab even wrote a book celebrating the pandemic not as a crisis but an opportunity for a ‘new normal.’

In Covid-19: the Great Reset, he wrote:

At the time of writing (June 2020), the pandemic continues to worsen globally. Many of us are pondering when things will return to normal. The short response is: never. Nothing will ever return to the ‘broken’ sense of normalcy that prevailed prior to the crisis because the coronavirus pandemic marks a fundamental inflection point in our global trajectory.

But what if what most people actually want is not a ‘new normal’ but to get their old lives back as quickly as possible. Neither Schwab nor the people pushing the Great Reset appear to understand this.

Their latest video urges:

So we can move towards a better world

One of the curious aspects of the video is its criticism that, since the pandemic, the ultra rich have got richer and the poor poorer.

At the beginning of 2020 1 percent of the world’s population owned 44 percent of the wealth. Since the start of the pandemic, billionaires have increased theirs by more than 25 percent while the 150 million poorest have fallen back into extreme poverty.

This may be true but it’s a bit hypocritical coming from the WEF, given that so many of its members and speakers belong in the billionaire category that has most benefited from the pandemic.

Delingpole: Bojo Tweets Praise for the Great Reset. Strap in Everyone, 2021 is Going to be a Wild Ride https://t.co/urokaAalcW

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 1, 2021

Indeed, those who have been watching these developments closely even argue that this is the whole point. Delingpod guest Patrick M Wood told me he thinks draconian anti-coronavirus measures taken by world leaders, at the instigation of the CCP-controlled World Health Organisation, represent a deliberate and concerted attempt to crush small businesses, empower large corporations, and make ordinary people more dependent on the state.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/27/trussst-usss-were-not-evil-claims-wef-great-reset-promo-video/

Dress Rehearsal Of Color Revolution In Russia

Anti-government protests under the pretext of the detention of the notorious Russian opposition leader Navalny took place in various cities across the country.

They were characterized by underwhelming attendance, claims of grandeur and awkward attempts at spreading violence. Protests were immediately endorsed by the Washington establishment. Notably, the United States Embassy in Moscow published detailed times and locations of unsanctioned rallies. Some Western leaders have made direct calls for an escalation of violence.

The entire situation resembled a staged performance that took place just days after the US President Joe Biden was inaugurated. The Russian scare narrative has already been pushed by the US Democrats and the US MSM for a long time. It is expected that the new Administration policy regarding Moscow will become even more hawkish. The detention of Alexey Navalny will be simply used as a justification for further aggressive actions against Russia. It fits perfectly with the Washington concept of cultivating an image of an unpredictable and irreconcilable foreign enemy to American values and democracy in general.

It is quite evident that Alexey Navalny, his sponsors, teammates and supporters were fully aware that he would get arrested when he returned to Russia. This could have been entirely avoided if he simply returned a bit earlier. He would thus meet the terms of his suspended sentence over the corruption and bribery in Russia. But then there would be no reason to protest.

Navalny even published a dramatic address saying that he had no desire to kill himself, to avoid any potential scenarios and being used as a sacrifice for the greater neo-liberal good.

As the hubs of the neo-liberal agenda in Russia, Moscow and Saint Petersburg hosted the largest protests. Protests in other regions were much smaller. However, there were even those protesting in extreme temperatures, showing that there is a motivated and unrelenting core.

The protest attendance, against the entire population of the cities, however, pales and shows an unimpressive turnout.

Reports of attendance vary, with some claiming at least 40,000 gathered in Moscow, with the authorities putting the number at merely 4,000. Others claimed that the numbers somewhere in the middle.

In Saint Petersburg, Kommersant reported that there was an attendance of about 5,000.

Other cities with a significant protest presence include Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok and Nizhny Novgorod.

The Russian branch of the BBC said that protests took place in 122 towns and cities across the country.

It appears that there was little friction among the general population. A notable part of protesters were likely paid. The core consisted of various unemployed idlers, young city hipsters, liberals and different minorities. A significant presence was seen from youths and minors, who were subjected to a large-scale social media campaign.

Many videos were released claiming police violence. Every video showed the same situation – an individual rushing towards police and attempting to assault the officers, and then getting detained in return.

There were no casualties, however, not from the side of the authorities, nor from the protesters. Evident attempts at causing casualties, by involving minors and youths, were obviously made, but they failed.

https://southfront.org/dress-rehearsal-of-color-revolution-in-russia/

Another Day, Another Biden

I am submitting this post to highlight just one of President Biden’s statements and how his policies clearly don’t align with promises of the past.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/another-day-another-biden/

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell claims Twitter took over his account and secretly posted as him - before his permanent ban - as he lashes out at Big Tech 'censorship'

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell blasted Twitter after he was permanently banned from the platform for continuing to spread misinformation about election fraud, saying that if Twitter can silence him, it can silence anyone.

Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday night, at one point Lindell claimed that the social media company was even secretly posting on his behalf while his account was suspended in a previous incident.

After being allowed back onto Twitter following the previous suspension, Lindell continued to spread debunked election fraud theories and claimed that a voting machine company hired trolls and online bots to ruin his business.

That's when Twitter pulled the plug, explaining Lindell's ban from the service on Monday night as being due to 'repeated violations of the company's policy on election misinformation.'

Lindell is the latest conservative voice to be axed or suspended from the platform after the former president himself and other members of his family were booted from the service.

The suspensions have sparked debate over whether tech companies should have the power to shut down speech - with some saying that falsehoods need to be squashed, but others saying that Americans should be free to debate without fear of being policed for their thoughts.

Twitter said Lindell had been banned 'due to repeated violations' of its Civic Integrity Policy.

To date, there has been no evidence of voter fraud. But Trump and his supporters say the election was rigged in Joe Biden's favor.

Lindell has stated several times that Dominion Voting Systems somehow switched millions of votes in swing states during November's presidential election.

The allegations are without foundation. The fraud would have needed to involve hundreds of elections officials from both parties.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/01/mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-claims.html

AMERICANS MUST NOW ACCEPT THE HARD, COLD REALITY THAT THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK IS INTENTIONALLY BEING USED TO COLLAPSE THE U.S. ECONOMY

The Cloward-Piven strategy is an 8-step plan designed in 1966 by hardcore anti-America Liberal Socialists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven that called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a new national system. Here is their plan, look at it and tell me if you see anything it mentions that might be happening right now. This is not conspiracy theory, I am asking you to exercise some intelligent, critical thinking.

Back when Barack Obama was president, one of the things we said he was attempting to do was to destroy the American economy with something called the Cloward-Piven strategy. It is an 8-step plan designed in 1966 by hardcore anti-America Liberal Socialists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven that called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a new national system. Here is their plan, look at it and tell me if you see anything it mentions that might be happening right now. This is not conspiracy theory, I am asking you to exercise some intelligent, critical thinking. Ready? Here it is:

https://prepareforchange.net/2020/04/06/americans-must-now-accept-the-hard-cold-reality-that-the-coronavirus-outbreak-is-intentionally-being-used-to-collapse-the-u-s-economy/

To Insults Of U.S. Troops, Biden Administration Adds Forcing Female Soldiers To Shower With Men

Women-only teams at military schools, colleges, and service academies will have to accommodate biological men, regardless of the harm done to women.

The newly inaugurated Biden-Harris administration is off to a rocky start with military men and women. Serious affronts have come from Congress as well as the White House, adding insults to injuries with even more damage on the way.

It was bad enough when Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., insinuated during a CNN interview that most of the 25,000 National Guard soldiers deployed to guard the Capitol during the Inauguration were white males and probably Donald Trump voters, so they might be in the “class” of people who “may want to do something” to cause trouble.

Then we saw 5,000 troops banished to a cold parking garage with one electrical outlet, no Internet, two restroom stalls, and high risks of COVID. Not since former First Lady Hillary Clinton treated uniformed White House social aides like personal servants have we seen such disdain for military personnel doing their jobs.

These affronts and reported plans to keep thousands of troops in Washington, D.C. without a clear mission were exceeded by President Joe Biden signing executive orders on his first day.

As predicted, Biden issued an executive order creating special government privileges for gender identity and sexual orientation, a major policy reversal likely to affect the military first. Biden also reversed Trump’s order ending critical race theory (CRT) instruction programs in all government agencies.

This means military schools at all levels likely will introduce abrasive CRT programs that accuse non-minorities of “white supremacy” and “systemic racism.” In CRT world, denials of racism prove racism. It is difficult to imagine a more divisive way to demoralize the troops instead of uniting them as an effective, cohesive force.

President Biden is especially letting down military women, who will be ordered to share their private facilities with biological males who claim to be transgender. Directives issued during the Obama-Biden administration, such as the 2016 “Military Transgender Policy Implementation Handbook,” brushed off concerns about personal discomfort and worse. Women, said the guidebook, will just have to “get used to it.”

Eliminating any doubt, Biden’s order explicitly opens doors to sexual minorities who want “access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports” reserved for the opposite sex. Transgender ideology, which demands acceptance of the unscientific notion that gender is “designated” or “assigned at birth,” disregards psychological and biological realities.

Science shows that human DNA and chromosomes determine each person’s sex. These characteristics exist long before birth and in every cell of a person’s body.

Biological sex does not change with alterations in outward appearance, and abundant scientific research proves that men and women are different in strength, endurance, athletic prowess, and other physical attributes. Activists forget science, however, when it doesn’t suit leftist politics.

The Trump Departments of Education and Justice showed respect for women and science by supporting female athletes fighting for the right to compete against other females, not biological males. Under President Biden’s new gender order, this support will end.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/26/to-insults-of-u-s-troops-biden-administration-adds-forcing-female-soldiers-to-shower-with-men/

Microsoft hits $40 billion in quarterly sales for first time, reports record earnings

Microsoft Corp. blew away earnings expectations Tuesday as it surpassed $40 billion in sales and $15 billion in profit in a quarter for the first time, sending shares up from their record closing price.

Microsoft MSFT, +1.22% has found strong gains during the COVID-19 pandemic, as companies rely on cloud computing from Azure and cloud-software offerings like Teams to keep employees connected while they work from home. Sales in the cloud and personal-computer segments led the way in Tuesday’s report, easily beating expectations as demand for PCs and remote computing power continued through the end of 2020.

In the holiday quarter, Microsoft reported earnings of $15.46 billion, or $2.03 a share, on sales of $43.1 billion, strong growth from the same quarter a year ago, when Microsoft reported earnings of $1.51 a share on sales of $36.9 billion. Analysts on average expected Microsoft to report fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.64 a share on revenue of $40.23 billion.

Shares jumped 4% in after-hours trading following the announcement, after the stock established a new all-time closing high of $232.33 in the regular session, topping a previous record from Sept. 2, 2020. Microsoft stock has increased 40.8% in the past 12 months, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.07% — which counts Microsoft as a component — has increased 6.8%.

https://nationalpreview.com/microsoft-hits-40-billion-in-quarterly-sales-for-first-time-reports-record-earnings/

UK unemployment rises above 7% and towards 10%

There are many different ways of gaining an insight into an economy and the labour market is one of the most significant. The credit crunch posed a challenge for earnings numbers in particular and we have seen that the pandemic and in particular the official response of the government via the furlough scheme has heavily affected the unemployment numbers. This is in many ways a good thing as it has helped prevent an unemployment surge but at the cost of making the number below useless as much of a guide to anything. However nobody seems to have told the BBC economics editor Faisal Islam.

While the main rate of unemployment has reached 5% for the first time in nearly five years, and this morning’s numbers saw the largest increase in the numbers unemployed since the financial crisis, the chancellor must now be tempted to extend the furlough scheme to co-ordinate with the rollout of the post-vaccination reopening of the economy.

He is in such a rush to make his point he forgets something which does appear later.

Though a significant rise over the past few pandemic-afflicted months, unemployment at 5% is still low by international standards and is being kept in check by the government’s job retention furlough scheme.

If we now switch to the actual numbers we are told this.

The UK unemployment rate, in the three months to November 2020, was estimated at 5.0%, 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.6 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.

But we see if we go through the numbers that some 1.6 million or so are being kept in employment by the furlough scheme.

Prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic there were on average 2 to 2.5 million people temporarily away from work. Experimental estimates based on returns for individual weeks show that the number of people temporarily away from work rose to around 7.9 million people in April 2020 but has fallen to around 4.1 million people in November 2020.

This is a very broad brush measure but it compares to this.

For September to November 2020, an estimated 1.72 million people were unemployed, up 418,000 on the same period the previous year and up 202,000 on the quarter.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/uk-unemployment-rises-above-7-and-towards-10/

Wakefern to close 62 ShopRite pharmacies amid stifling competition

Wakefern Food will be closing underperforming pharmacies in 62 ShopRite supermarkets during the next month and transferring customer prescription files to CVS locations in the vicinity of the affected stores, a spokesperson for the East Coast retailer-owned cooperative confirmed late Monday. The company plans to continue running pharmacies at 147 ShopRite locations.

Pharmacy support staff affected by the impending closures, which were first reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, will be offered other positions in ShopRite stores, while pharmacists and technicians will have the chance to interview with CVS, according to Wakefern.

Wakefern is scaling back its pharmacy operations even as it moves ahead with efforts to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. The company said neither its inoculation program nor the pharmacies distributing the shots will be impacted by the closures.

Dive Insight:

The decision by Wakefern to dismantle a substantial portion of its ShopRite pharmacy fleet follows the cooperative’s conclusion that it could not keep up with its much larger rivals in the challenging retail drugstore business.

https://nationalpreview.com/wakefern-to-close-62-shoprite-pharmacies-amid-stifling-competition/

Media Blackout: Italian Bars & Restaurants Disobey Rules & Open Together In Civil Disobedience

What Happened: Despite no mainstream media coverage, people are starting to become aware of what seems to be a mass civil disobedience campaign in Italy against lockdown measures (#IoApro). An estimated 50,000 bars, restaurants and other businesses are defying government orders and are remaining open to the public, together. We cannot confirm the exact number. UK journalist Damian Wilson writes, “if the number of 50,000 establishments currently on board is to be believed, it’s a movement growing by the day.”

EuroNews is one of the few outlets on the scene providing coverage.

One frustrated restaurateur said the move was as “a polite protest” and another“civil disobedience”, as they invited customers to dine on Friday night despite measures put in place to fight the spread of COVID-19. Armando Minotti, owner of Loste Ria restaurant in the south of the city, said “we cannot go on this way” – recent losses were making it impossible to provide for his children and he said government financial aid wasn’t enough. “Let’s call this a polite protest. If the guards come in, and they surely will, we will let them in, we will accept the fine but we are going to stay open and we won’t close any more. Because it is impossible to go on like this,” he added. Across the city, pizzas were churned out of the ovens at Fuoco & Farina where owner Max Vietri admitted to seeing the action as “civil disobedience”.

The Express in the UK also did, along with a few others.

A popular hashtag is also providing information from various social media users who are uploading articles and videos. The hashtag is #IoApro. If you view this hashtag on twitter, you can see some pretty large protests. As the #IoApro (I am open) momentum builds, politicians like Vittorio Sgarbi are supporting the restaurants with a message against the rules in which he urges establishments, “Open up and don’t worry, in the end we will make them eat their fines.”

Why This Is Important: Whether you are a world renowned scientist, doctor, academic, journalist, politician, or anybody for that matter who opposes government lockdown measures as a way to combat COVID-19, you’re going to face the consequences. In Ontario, Canda, for example, a member of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s caucus was fired for speaking out against his own government’s policies and calling for an end to the province-wide pandemic lockdown. “The lockdown isn’t working,” wrote York Centre Progressive Conservative MPP Roman Baber in a letter to Ford. “It’s causing an avalanche of suicides, overdoses, bankruptcies, divorces and takes an immense toll on our children. Dozens of leading doctors implored you to end the lockdowns.”

https://nationalpreview.com/media-blackout-italian-bars-restaurants-disobey-rules-open-together-in-civil-disobedience/

Pamela Anderson quits social media, warns Big Tech companies are seeking 'control over your brain'

The former Playboy model warned big tech companies are trying to have 'control over your brain'

Pamela Anderson revealed she's quitting social media.

The former Playboy model announced on Tuesday that she will no longer post to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

"This will be my last post on Instagram Twitter or Facebook," the star's caption on Instagram begins.

Anderson said she's "never been interested in social media" and her decision comes from reaching a point in her life that she's "genuinely inspired by." She said she's enjoying "reading and being in nature" and declared: "I am free."

The "Baywatch" icon went on to thank her followers for their "love" over the years and wished "blessings to you all."

She also implored others to find their purpose. "And try not to be seduced by wasted time," she added.

She went on to say that Big Tech companies are seeking "control over your brain."

"Thats what THEY want and can use to make money," Anderson added in her final post.

Anderson, who is 53, shared her message with an up-close throwback pic showing the blonde wearing black eye makeup and giving a sultry look to the camera.

Anderson has 1.2 million Instagram followers and another 1 million on Twitter. Nearly 900,000 people also follow her official Pamela Anderson Foundation Facebook page.

In a similar announcement on Twitter, she wrote, "Goodbye social media."

Minutes after Anderson made her announcement, fans began sharing kind words in support.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/pamela-anderson-quits-social-media-warns-big-tech-seeking-control

Israeli Military Chief Announces New Plans to Strike Iran

Aviv Kohavi said the Biden administration should not return to JCPOA

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said on Tuesday that he ordered the military to draw up new plans to attack Iran’s nuclear program. He also warned the new Biden administration against reviving the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

“I have ordered the IDF to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to the existing ones,” Kohavi said. “We are studying these plans and we will develop them over the next year.”

Kohavi’s comments are just the latest threatening comments towards Iran from Israeli officials. Earlier this month, an Israeli minister from the Likud party said Israel will have to attack Iran if the Biden administration returns to the JCPOA.

Warning against a revival of the JCPOA in his comments on Tuesday, Kohavi said the new administration should not let up the pressure that the Trump administration left on Iran in the form of crippling economic sanctions.

“These pressures must continue. No matter what happens. Anything that releases that pressure gives them oxygen gives them air and will allow them to continue to violate the current agreement,” he said.

Kohavi, like most Israeli officials, warned that Iran is racing to develop a nuclear weapon. He cited Iran’s recent decision to increase uranium enrichment to 20 percent as an example of this. But uranium enriched at 20 percent has a civilian purpose. It is used to make fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor, a facility built by the US in the 1960s that can make medical isotopes.

The Iranians only recently decided to increase enrichment to 20 percent as a response to the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the prominent Iranian scientist who was killed in an apparent Israeli plot.

Iran has also made it clear that they will return to compliance with the JCPOA if the US lifts sanctions. Returning to compliance means reducing uranium enrichment and other violations of the deal that Kohavi cited as reasons to plan an attack on Iran.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/01/26/israeli-military-chief-announces-new-plans-to-strike-iran/

It's a mistake to believe that Biden will be a friend of Palestine

Palestinians are eager to turn a new page after four years of the Trump administration in Washington, which undermined the whole Palestinian cause. Trump let Israel's right-wing government do as it pleased, and gave its illegal activities a veneer of acceptability.

Joe Biden's election win was thus welcomed, not least by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who saw it as a step towards advancing a peaceful solution for Palestine-Israel. However, Dr Yara Hawari, senior analyst at the Palestinian Policy Network, Al-Shabaka, pointed out that Trump's policies were really just Washington's traditional stance on Palestine, with full and unconditional support for the state of Israel.

"US foreign policy has been consistent in being pro-Israel, whether it's been the Republican or the Democrat Party in control," Hawari told me. "The Trump administration wasn't a break from this policy. It was certainly cruder in style and facilitated the acceleration of the colonisation of Palestine, but it wasn't necessarily a huge break from US foreign policy."

To expect Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist,to change anything or compensate for the damage that his predecessor did is "overly optimistic," she explained. The new US president has a history of supporting Israel's aggression against the Palestinians.

As a US senator and as vice president under Barack Obama, he helped to ensure that America maintained its unwavering support for Israel. He was a key advocate, for example, in securing support for Israel's Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow 3 missile defence systems.

Indeed, Biden once said that American military aid to Israel is the "best" investment Washington makes. "If there weren't an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region," he told fellow senators.

Although he signed a number of Executive Orders overturning Trump decisions within 24 hours of his inauguration last week, the US president is not going to annul any decisions which favoured Israel. Although Biden has criticised Trump's moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, he is not going to move it back to Tel Aviv.

Moreover, even though Biden has said that he will reinstate several Palestinian aid programmes that the Trump administration cut, such as funds for economic development and humanitarian aid, he has also echoed his predecessor's view about aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) being conditional upon cuts to government welfare payments that go to the families of Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians killed by Israel. This is something that the PA has refused to consider.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210127-its-a-mistake-to-believe-that-biden-will-be-a-friend-of-palestine/

CDC projects US could see up to 514K coronavirus deaths by Feb. 20

The United States is projected to record as many as 514,000 deaths from the coronavirus by Feb. 20 based on the country's current trajectory, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday.

Speaking at the Biden administration's first formal public health briefing on the pandemic, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the agency predicts the country is on pace for between 479,000 and 514,000 COVID-19 deaths by Feb. 20. The estimate is a more specific version of what Walensky said she expected during an interview with CBS earlier this month.

Walensky said the United States has reported slightly fewer than 420,000 coronavirus deaths since Jan. 22, 2020, based on CDC data.

The U.S. reported its highest number of deaths in a single day on Jan. 20, with 4,383. But the seven-day average for deaths has decreased over the past week, she said.

"While I am encouraged by these trends, our case rates remain extraordinarily high, and now is the time to remain vigilant," Walensky said. "If we continue in the current trajectory, the CDC's most recent national ensemble forecast predicts that 479,000-514,000 Covid deaths will be reported by Feb. 20, 2021. I know this is not news we all want to hear, but this is something we must say so we are all aware. But if we are united in action, we can turn things around."

The Biden administration has repeatedly hammered home the idea that the pandemic is likely to get worse before it gets better, and that the U.S. will continue to see a significant number of infections and deaths from the virus.

President Biden said in remarks on Tuesday that while the administration is poised to increase vaccine distribution in the coming weeks, most Americans will not be fully vaccinated for "months."

"In the next few months, masks — not vaccines — are the best defense against COVID-19," he said. "Experts say that wearing masks from now just until April would save 50,000 lives who otherwise will pass away if we don’t wear these masks."

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/536110-cdc-projects-us-could-see-up-to-514k-virus-deaths-by-feb-20

Facebook, and Instagram Remove Over 78,000 Users for QAnon, ‘Militarization’ Policy Violations Company Says

Big Tech goes after round two of Q-anon accounts, wiping out nearly 100,000 accounts on two major platforms and counting.

The following is from The Epoch Times:

Facebook removed more than 78,000 profiles on both Facebook and Instagram, saying they had posted QAnon content and content related to “militarized social movements” since August 2020.

“We continue to strengthen our enforcement by identifying additional militarized social movements, new terms associated with QAnon and how people attempt to skirt our detection, including focusing more on Facebook profiles used to organize and promote these movements and groups on our platform,” Facebook said in an update on Jan. 19.

The company added that “these groups are constantly working to avoid our enforcement and we’ll continue to study how they evolve in order to keep people safe.”

Facebook added that “as of January 12, 2021, we have identified over 890 militarized social movements to date and in total, removed about 3,400 Pages, 19,500 groups, 120 events, 25,300 Facebook profiles and 7500 Instagram accounts. We’ve also removed about 3,300 Pages, 10,500 groups, 510 events, 18,300 Facebook profiles and 27,300 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against QAnon.”

A Facebook spokesperson told Fox Business last week that in all, about 78,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts were deleted as of Jan. 12 of this year.

Other Big Tech companies such as Twitter and Google’s YouTube have also removed tens of thousands of accounts related to the movement in recent weeks.

Regardless of what you think of this movement, this is a clear violation of the First Amendment, and the right of Americans to have free speech.

https://thedcpatriot.com/facebook-and-instagram-remove-over-78000-users-for-qanon-militarization-policy-violations-company-says/

Italy’s Prime Minister Conte resigns. Political crisis deepens

Italy’s Prime Minister Conte resigns. Political crisis deepens

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigns as political crisis escalates

Italy is facing more political turmoil after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned Tuesday, at a time when the country faces a severe health and economic crisis. Italy has been embroiled in political uncertainty over the past three weeks after a small party, Italia Viva, decided to exit the coalition government led by Conte.

https://theduran.com/italys-prime-minister-conte-resigns-political-crisis-deepens/

Biden’s Asia Policy Czar Helped Found Group ‘Heavily Influenced by the CCP’

China hawk: Kurt Campbell's U.S.-China Strong Foundation 'tantamount to a front group'

Joe Biden's incoming Asia policy czar was a top leader at a nonprofit group that was bankrolled by the head of a Chinese propaganda front group and partnered with a Chinese foreign mission.

Kurt Campbell, a former Obama State Department official and businessman, was until August 2020 listed as board vice chairman of the U.S.-China Strong Foundation, ostensibly a nonprofit group that promotes student language exchanges with Beijing but whose leaders included prominent members of the Chinese government’s overseas propaganda fronts, according to State Department and Department of Justice records.

Campbell is slated to serve as the chief coordinator for President Joe Biden’s Asia policy on the National Security Council, but his leadership role with the foundation is raising concerns with China hawks in Washington. The foundation has promoted the Chinese army and China's Belt and Road Initiative—deemed a national security threat by U.S. officials. It has also partnered with the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, an educational nonprofit organization that the State Department designated as a foreign mission last summer, citing its promotion of Beijing's propaganda efforts to academics across the world.

In August 2017, the U.S.-China Strong Foundation appeared to celebrate the founding of the People’s Liberation Army on its Twitter account, writing, "Today is the 90th anniversary of the founding of China's PLA!" and urging followers to read about a commemorating address by President Xi. The group also posted multiple favorable Twitter messages about China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure program that U.S. officials have decried as a national security risk.

"The indicators suggest that the U.S.-China Strong Foundation could be a [Chinese Communist Party] front group, or so heavily influenced by the CCP as to be tantamount to a front group," said Anders Corr, an intelligence analyst and publisher of the Journal of Political Risk.

The U.S.-China Strong Foundation’s website appears to have vanished from the internet in August 2020, and its phone number and email address are no longer in service. An archived version of the website, however, listed Campbell as vice chairman and a member of the corporate advisory board as recently as Aug. 15, 2020. He is also listed as vice chairman in the group’s most recent federal financial disclosure, filed in 2019.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/bidens-asia-policy-czar-helped-found-group-heavily-influenced-by-the-ccp/

Netanyahu to Davos: Israel is 'world's laboratory for immunity'

Israel closed its airports Monday for at least a week, the first country in the world to do so.

Israel is “in an arms race between vaccination and mutation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Davos World Economic Forum, held online this year.

“All the virus mutations you see, you are two weeks too late when you spot them. And the new ones, you won’t know about for a few more weeks. That’s why we had to close down flights.”

Israel closed its airports Monday for at least a week, the first country in the world to do so.

The country has vaccinated 82% of the population above age 60 so far, and aims to reach 95%, Netanyahu told Børge Brende, president of the WEF. “There will be more [mutations] in the future. That means we have to race as fast as we can.”

Statistically, it’s just a question of time before there is a strain that the current vaccines do not work with, he added.

Netanyahu expressed hope that Israel can serve as a “world laboratory for herd immunity.” He added that “Israel can serve as a global test case to understand what is the efficacy of using… inoculation to open up economies.”

Asked about Israel’s dominance in cybersecurity, Netanyahu replied, “the most important investment you can make in cyber is [teaching] mathematics.” He noted that Israel is moving its cybersecurity and intelligence units to the south of the country to allow an ecosystem to develop around it. “We are putting everything within walking distance, to create an environment where ideas can ferment.”

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/netanyahu-to-davos-israel-is-worlds-laboratory-for-immunity-656901

Obstruction boomerang: FBI knew DOJ was preparing to fire Comey long before Trump ordered it

Rosenstein offered to wear wire on Trump, wanted fired Comey's advice on special counsel, newly declassified memos show.

Newly declassified FBI memos provide startling new details that undercut the frenzied 2017 effort to investigate Donald Trump for obstruction, revealing the FBI knew Director James Comey's firing had been conceived by Justice Department leadership long before the president pulled the trigger during a key moment in the Russia probe.

The memos written in May 2017 by Acting Director Andrew McCabe and a lieutenant also provide contemporaneous proof for some of the more jaw-dropping lore of the now-discredited Russia collusion scandal.

For instance, the memos directly state that then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein offered to wear a wire to secretly record Trump in the Oval Office and that Rosenstein also wanted to seek Comey's advice — after his termination — on a possible Russia special counsel. The bureau nixed both ideas, the memos show.

The documents — declassified by Trump during his final 24 hours in office — also provide a tantalizing list of names the Trump administration considered for FBI director, including former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, ex-director and eventual Russia Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and retired Gen. John Kelly.

File

McCabeNotesRecusal.pdf

Eventually, Trump settled on former prosecutor Chris Wray for the job.

But the memos' most explosive revelations chronicle the decision by McCabe in his early days on the job to open a formal investigation of Trump on the grounds that Comey's firing may have been an act of obstruction of justice designed to thwart the Russia probe.

The notes show McCabe informed Rosenstein during a May 16, 2017 meeting — one of their first after Comey was fired and McCabe became acting director — that he had opened the obstruction probe.

"I explained that the purpose of the investigation was to investigate allegations of possible collusion between the President and the Russian government, possible obstruction of justice related to the firing of FBI Director James Comey and possible conspiracy to obstruct justice," McCabe wrote in typewritten notes of the meeting.

File

McCabeNotesMay162017.pdf

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/obstruction-boomerang-fbi-knew-comey-firing-was-planned

ISIS In Al-Tanf. Propaganda Or Reality?

Many questions remain unanswered about the al-Tanf United States base in the Syrian desert, that is called illegal by the Syrian government and Russia. Why is al-Tanf so important to the US? What are the US soldiers still doing there? Who else are hosted in the al-Tanf pocket? Why is ISIS growing again? Is al-Tanf really a launching pad for ISIS attacks in the region?

Why is the al-Tanf base so important to the US?

The al-Tanf base is located in the al-Tanf pocket, at about 20km of the al-Tanf border crossing. It’s 55 km-deconfliction zone is located along the border with Iraq and Jordan, and cuts off the Baghdad-Damascus highway. By controlling this highway, the United States ensures that Iranian deliveries to the Syrian capital Damascus cannot take place by land. This is of high strategic importance to the US, because Iranian shipments and air deliveries are much easier intercepted, and form an easy target to Israeli airstrikes.

The US-led coalition forces use al-Tanf as an entrance point to launch operations into Syria. The base can be easily reached from both Baghdad and Jordan.

Both the Syrian government and Russian officials have repeatedly stated that the al-Tanf zone are being used by terrorist groups active in the region, as a safe haven and a foothold to carry out attacks on government-held areas and Iranian proxy-groups in the Bukamal area. This ‘ISIS rear base’ has been actively protected by the forces stationed at al-Tanf, which threaten any deployment of the Syrian Arab Army, Iranian proxy-groups and Russian forces close to the al-Tanf zone. The formal justification given by the US surrounding these actions is that Syrian government troops as well as Iranian-backed forces in Syria pose a threat to US-backed ‘less-radical’ rebel groups and US troops deployed at the garrison.

https://southfront.org/isis-in-al-tanf-propaganda-or-reality/

Can You Steal a Presidency That Doesn’t Exist?

The presidential inauguration of Joe Biden passed over peacefully: But then it wasn’t a presidential inauguration at all.

The dark genius vision of Philip K. Dick, America’s Kafka, greatest and therefore most widely feared and ignored of U.S. writers proved unerringly true again. The Reality of Things is far too difficult, far too disturbing to even attempt any more. Just hang a a handwritten tiny note on any piece of junk and 330 million Americans will happily believe that it is more real than reality. Though in reality, not even that.

The official viewing figures of the Biden inauguration on January 20 are now in, and they have even been published. They have predictably been presented as more proof of the restored triumph of American “democracy.” Yet the simple figures took an extraordinarily different story.

The four great national U.S. television networks – CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox – together enjoyed a combined a combined audience of 10.5 million viewers for the Inauguration and its festivities.

Let me repeat that: 10.5 million viewers. Out of a national population of one third of a billion.

Bad sitcoms and witless, violent brainless crime dramas on television prime time get scrapped for posting figures better than that.

Yet 81 million people we are told – more Americans than ever before in the nations 232 year constitutional history – voted for Biden against that Threat to All That is Holy and Decent Donald Trump.

In other words, less than one eighth of those who were reported as having voted for Biden bothered to actually watch him being sworn in, according to the media establishment’s own official figures and admissions.

At least 70 million people who supposedly voted for Biden never bothered paying any attention to this great ceremony of national renewal. How could that be?

The population of the United States on March 4, 1933 was 125 million – more than 200 million less than it is today. Yet Roosevelt’s 1,885 word, 20-minute first inaugural speech is routinely described by historians as being listened to by “tens of millions” of people. (Exact figures are curiously hard to find,. It is as if U.S. academic historians simply did not think it was important to find them.)

However, the great narrative historian William Manchester, who as a boy lived through those years, captured the extraordinary national impact in his classic work “The Glory and the Dream.”

“The radio networks carried his great voice out across the suffering land, over the sweatshops and the flophouses, the Hoovervilles and hobo jungles, the rocky soil tilled by tenant farmers, the ragged men shivering in the iron cold outside g factory f gates … in the three decker tenements with radios the hungry children looked up,; in county courthouses the embattled farmers looked ; housewives patching threadbare clothes looked up; there was a kind of magic in the air.”

The intellectuals always sneered and looked down their long pointed noses at Franklin Roosevelt, so did his exceptionally stupid though now of course deified wife Eleanor who confessed she was frightened by the speech. (She was frightened by a lot of things). But the American people, Manchester notes, knew better. Over the next week 450,000 of them wrote directly to the president to express their thanks.

President Biden’s inauguration, we can now confirm, did not inspire any such response.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/01/27/can-you-steal-a-presidency-that-doesnt-exist/

Former Media Producer Indicted on Charges of Extortion and Obstruction of Justice

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-media-producer-indicted-charges-extortion-and-obstruction-justice